The University of Arizona Cancer Center prepares post-baccalaureate scholars to pursue doctoral degrees in cancer-related fields through The American Cancer Society (ACS) Post-Baccalaureate Program.
Activities led by the Office of Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination (CRTEC)
ACS Post-Baccalaureate Program - The University of Arizona Cancer Center is one of 19 institutions sponsored by the American Cancer Society to host a new ACS Post-Baccalaureate Program. This program will expand opportunities to enter the cancer research workforce by increasing research experience of trainees prior to applying to a doctoral or medical doctoral degree. The goal of this program is to expose the participants to cancer research and provide career development activities that will help them prepare for a career in cancer research.
About the program
The ACS Post-Baccalaureate Program at UACC will offer a paid, two-year, full-time cancer research experience to individuals with a bachelor’s degree who intend to pursue a doctoral degree in biomedical science, a health profession, or in population health/public health (e.g., Ph.D., MD, MD/PhD, PharmD, DrPH). Visit the ACS Post-Baccalaureate Program website for more specific information.
Over the 24-month program, the four participants who are selected will engage in:
- Mentored research experiences that teach them to identify and address important questions in the cancer field.
- Professional development workshops to enhance their competitiveness for doctoral degree programs.
- Seminars and graduate-level coursework through which they learn about cutting-edge cancer research.
- Networking activities building their connections to peers and role models in the cancer field.
The program will start on August 1, 2025.
Application is open from December 4th 2024 – March 15th 2025
Application here:
UACC Post-Baccalaureate Scholars application
For questions regarding this program, please contact meganmckay@arizona.edu.
Eligibility requirements include:
- Bachelor's degree in any STEM discipline
- 2.75 minimum GPA
- Motivation to pursue a doctoral degree and a career in the cancer field
- Commitment to participate in the program full-time
These faculty will support the participants in identifying a project that aligns with their general area of career interest and provides direct experience with the scientific process. The participants will develop a formal oral presentation of their research project to present at the UACC annual research retreat in their second year and at an end-of-program celebration.
Participants will have the opportunity to work with Cancer Center mentors including:
Alicia Allen, PhD; Family and Community Medicine
Area of Research: Nicotine/tobacco, addiction, women's health, cancer prevention
Jennifer Barton, PhD; Biomedical Engineering
Area of Research: Optical imaging, endoscopes, early detection, microscopy
Jennifer W. Bea, PhD; Health Promotion Sciences
Area of Research; Body composition, cancer prevention, lifestyle interventions
Ali Bilgin, PhD; Biomedical Engineering
Area of Research: Magnetic resonance imaging, image processing, machine learning, deep learning
Alfred Bothwell, PhD; Immunobiology
Area of Research: Cancer immunology stem cells molecular biology
Ross Buchan, PhD; Molecular and Cellular Biology
Area of Research: Stress Granules; P-bodies; Proteostasis; Stress Response
Carlos Caulin: PhD; Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Area of Research: Head and neck cancer, p53, mouse models, immunoprevention
Jennifer Carew, PhD; Medicine- Area of Research: translational research, hematological malignancies, protein turnover, epigenetic stability, drug discovery
Kellen Chen, PhD; Surgery
Area of Research: Fibrosis, regeneration, single-cell transcriptomics, tissue engineering, cellular mechanics
Zelieann Craig, PhD; Animal & Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Area of Research: Toxicology, infertility, reproduction
Anne E. Cress, PhD; Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Area of Research: Cancer invasion and metastasis prevention
Sally Dickinson, PhD; Pharmacology
Area of Research: Skin cancer, TLR4, prevention
Nathan Ellis, PhD; Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Area of Research: Cancer genetics, cancer susceptibility, cancer health disparities, cancer epigenetics, replication stress, and DNA repair
Rina Fox, PhD, MPH; College of Nursing
Area of Research: Quality of life, survivorship, sleep disturbance, stress management, adolescent and young adult
David Garcia, PhD; Health Promotion Science
Area of Research: Health equity, Hispanic health, and community-engagement
Judith Gordon, PhD; Nursing
Area of Research: Tobacco, Integrative Health, Behavior Change, Digital Health
Geoffrey Gurtner, MD; Surgery
Area of Research: Wound healing, fibrosis, regeneration, mechanotransduction, surgery
Heidi Hamann, PhD; Psychology- Area of Research: psychological and behavioral aspects of cancer screening, diagnosis and survivorship, Developing and testing interventions to help cancer-related adjustment
Dongkyun Kang, PhD; College of Optical Sciences
Area of Research: Optical microscopy for cancer diagnosis, skin cancer diagnosis, cervical cancer diagnosis
Emmanuel Katsanis, MD; Pediatrics, Medicine, Immunobiology, Pathology -Area of Research: Hematopoietic cellular therapy, transplant, graft versus host disease
Anirban Kundu, PhD; Urology- Area of Research: Signal transduction, epigenetics, epitranscriptomics, kidney cancer
Nam Lee, PhD; Pharmacology (College of Medicine) and Chemistry & Biology
Area of Research: Pancreatic cancer, tumor angiogenesis, and therapeutics
Purnima Madhivana, MD, PhD; Health Promotion Sciences
Area of Research: Global Health, Cancer Continuum of Care, Intersection of Infectious & Chronic Diseases, Women's Health, Public Health
Michael Marty, PhD; Chemistry and Biochemistry
Area of Research: Membrane proteins, lipids, nanodiscs, mass spectrometry
Juanita L. Merchant, MD, PhD; Medicine
Area of Research: Transcriptional regulation, inflammation, gastric and colon cancer
Cindy Miranti, PhD: Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Area of Research: Prostate cancer, bone tumor microenvironment, bioengineering, signal transduction, oncogenesis
Steffan Nawrocki, PhD; Medicine
Area of Research: Cancer therapeutics, autophagy, apoptosis, drug resistance, oncolytic virus
John Purdy, PhD; Immunobiology
Area of Research: Virus infection, metabolism, metabolomics, lipidomics
Greg Rogers, PhD; Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Cancer Biology- Area of Research: Genome instability, centrosome instability, chromosome copy-number, Polo and Polo-like kinase 4
John Ruiz, PhD; Clinical Health Psychology- Area of Research: investigate how social lives constitute both risk and resilience for physical health, studies of stress and cardiovascular risk, as well as the Hispanic Health Paradox
Travis Sawyer, PhD; Optical Sciences
Area of Research: Imaging, gastrointestinal cancer, biomedical engineering, image analysis, cancer screening
Jacob Schwartz, PhD; Medical Pharmacology
Area of Research: Sarcoma, molecular biology, pediatric, bone cancer
Megan B Skiba, PhD, MS, MPH, RDN; Nursing, Biobehavioral Health Science- Area of Research: nutritional sciences, health promotion, behavior measurement, and epidemiology, healthy aging, women’s health, rural populations, dyadic health
Curtis Thorne, PhD; Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Area of Research: Colon Cancer, Organoids, Signal Transduction, Drug Discovery
Koenraad Van Doorslaer, PhD; Animal and Biomedical Sciences
Area of Research: HPV, innate immunity, oncogenes, persistent infection, evolution
Wei Wang, PhD; Pharmacology and Toxicology
Area of Research: Cancer drug discovery, autophagy inhibitors, targeted protein degradation, AML
Shamar J. Young, MD; Department of Medical Imaging - Division Chief, Vascular and Interventional Radiology Associate Professor, Medical Imaging
Area of Research: Clinical translation and research, interventional oncology, portal hypertension, and advanced emboltherapy.
Donna Zhang, PhD; Pharmacology and Toxicology
Area of Research: NRF2, chemoresistance, lung cancer, Ovarian Cancer, anti-cancer drug development
Chi Zhou, PhD; School of Animal Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Area of Research: Angiogenesis, Endothelial Function, TNF-α, Cytokines, Fetal Programming
These faculty will support the participants in identifying a project that aligns with their general area of career interest and provides direct experience with the scientific process. The participants will develop a formal oral presentation of their research project to present at the UACC annual research retreat in their second year and at an end-of-program celebration.
